Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell listens to her sentencing from Judge Alison Nathan in a courtroom sketch in New York City, U.S. June 28, 2022.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
The Department of Justice in late-night court filings on Tuesday gave federal judges additional information as part of its efforts to get grand jury proceedings related to notorious sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell unsealed.
The DOJ told the judges that it has now notified all but one of the victims mentioned in those grand jury transcripts.
Manhattan District Judge Paul Engelmayer last week had pointedly noted that the DOJ may not have notified Epstein and Maxwell’s victims before it first asked him and another judge to unseal those transcripts in the face of pressure on the Trump administration to release information about the investigations.
The DOJ earlier in July said it would not release information in the Epstein case files, reneging on multiple promises to do so.
That announcement sparked a backlash that led the Trump administration to seek the release of the grand jury transcripts, and to have a top DOJ official last week interview Maxwell to ask her about possible other abusers.
“Before filing the motions to unseal, relevant counsel for the Government reviewed the Epstein and Maxwell grand jury transcripts,” the DOJ said in Tuesday night’s filings in Manhattan federal court.
“In addition, the Government has now provided notice to all but one of the victims who are referenced in the grand jury transcripts at issue in this motion,” the filings said.
“The Government has attempted to contact the remaining victim, but such efforts have been unsuccessful. In addition, the Government is in the process of providing notice to any other individuals identified in the transcripts.”
The filings went to Engelmayer, who oversees Maxwell’s criminal case, and Judge Richard Berman, who oversees Epstein’s case.
The filings elaborate on the DOJ’s initial request to unseal the grand jury transcripts, which are normally kept secret.
“There is undoubtedly a clearly expressed interest from the public in Jeffrey Epstein’s and Ghislaine Maxwell’s crimes,” the filings said.
“Beyond that, there is abundant public interest in the investigative work conducted by the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation into those crimes.”
The filings also said that the only witness who testified to the grand jury that indicted Epstein on child sex trafficking charges was an FBI agent. Epstein killed himself in August 2019 in a federal jail weeks after being arrested on those charges.
The filings said that the same FBI agent and a New York police officer assigned to an FBI task force were the only witnesses who testified to the other grand jury that indicted Maxwell on sex crime charges.
The witnesses in both grand jury proceedings told jurors about the statements of other people, including victims of Epstein and Maxwell. Such hearsay testimony, which is typically barred during criminal trials, is allowed under grand jury rules.
Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence in Florida, having been convicted at trial in late 2021 of crimes related to procuring and grooming underage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein.
